This past week terrorist events focused on the violent clashes between Palestinians and Israeli security forces on the Temple Mount. Palestinians, some of them masked, prepared in advance for the clashes by stockpiling cinderblocks, rocks, stones, wooden boards, Molotov cocktails and fireworks. This past week three Palestinians were killed in various events during which Israeli security forces met with violent resistance while detaining wanted terrorists.

Some ten months after the opening of the US-led campaign against ISIS, this week there has been a possible fundamental change in Turkey’s policy. From ISIS’s perspective, the Turkish activity along the border and the widespread wave of detentions may impede ISIS’s supply routes and make it more difficult for foreign fighters to join ISIS. In the main areas of fighting in Syria, Iraq, Egypt and Libya, there were no significant changes on the ground this week.

Convoys and Flotillas

UN Committee on NGOs voted to grant the Palestinian Return Centre observer status, pending authorization. The London-based PRC is affiliated with Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood and has played an important role in the campaign to delegitimize Israel.

This past week clashes near the security fence along the Israel-Gaza Strip border continued. Violence and terrorism in Judea and Samaria continued in the usual patterns. Prominent this past week was the stabbing attack carried out by a Palestinian in a supermarket in Mishor Adumim, east of Jerusalem.

On August 12, 2014, a press conference was held in Istanbul to announce a new flotilla to end the naval blockade of the Gaza Strip. The press conference was organized by the Freedom Flotilla Coalition (FCC), led, in ITIC assessment, by the IHH. According to an IHH report and a Coalition press release, discussions about the new flotilla were held at IHH headquarters in Istanbul on August 10 and 11, 2014.

While the border between Israel and the Gaza Strip remains quiet, terrorist attacks and acts of violence continue in Judea and Samaria. The Israel Security Agency revealed that since Operation Pillar of Defense Hamas has attempted to carry out terrorist attacks in Judea and Samaria.

Previous years bulletins

Information on Convoys and Flotillas

The naval closure Israel imposed on the Gaza Strip led to a wave of protest actions by pro-Palestinian organizations, most of which centered around so-called "aid" convoys and flotillas. One of the most prominent was the Mavi Marmara flotilla.The convoys and flotillas are part of the campaign to delegitimize Israel. Convoys and flotillas are organized by anti-Israeli networks and activists from the Middle East and around the world.The flotillas are not fundamentally intended to bring supplies to the Gaza Strip but rather to challenge Israel, erode the legitimacy of its naval closure and strengthen the position of the de-facto Hamas administration; the convoys have basically the same purpose. The convoy and flotilla organizers seek to hamper the IDF's freedom of action to prevent weapons and terrorist operatives from entering the Gaza Strip.The international community rejected the claim of the closure's illegitimacy, stating that aid could be transferred overland to the residents of the Gaza Strip without flotillas to challenge Israel. The international community has been critical of the convoys and flotillas and expressed reservations regarding them. According to the UN Palmer Commission Report, which addressed the issue, Israel's naval closure of the Gaza Strip is a legitimate security measure taken in self defense.